Nymph
A nymph (nýmphē ) in Greek mythology is a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from other goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis. They are beloved by many and dwell in mountainous regions and forests by springs or rivers; as Walter Burkert (Burkert 1985:III.3.3) remarks, "The idea that rivers are gods and springs divine nymphs is deeply rooted not only in poetry but in belief and ritual; the worship of these deities is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality." Other nymphs, always in the shape of young maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally the huntress Artemis.But see Jennifer Larson, "Handmaidens of Artemis?", The Classical Journal 92.3 (February 1997), pp. 249–257. Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. Etymology The Greek word has the primary meaning of "nubile young woman; bride, young wife" and is not associated with deities in particular. It refers to young women at the peak of sexual attractiveness, contrasting with parthenos ( ) "a virgin (of any age)", and generic kore ( < ) "maiden, girl". The term is used by (human) women to address each other, so Iris addressing Helen, or Eurycleia addressing Penelope as "dear nymph" (Il. 3.130, Od. 4.743). Reduced to , the word remains the regular Modern Greek term for "bride". In Katharevousa, it is still , as in the refrain of the Marian hymn Agni Parthene (c. 1880), "hail, unwedded bride".first published in Θεοτοκάριον μικρόν, Athens (1905). The Doric and Aeolic (Homeric) form is . The Iliad (6.420) refers to "mountain nymphs, maidens of Zeus": : [Il. 6.419f.] :"He [Achilles] heaped over him [Eetion] a barrow, and all about were elm-trees planted / by mountain-nymphs, maidens of Zeus the aegis-bearer." The divine nymphs are called θεαὶ Νύμφαι "the nubile goddesses" in Il. 24.616. In mystical theology, the term is applied to souls seeking re-birth. The derived verb means "to marry (of a woman)" (with dative), "to give in marriage (of the bride's father)" or "to marry (of the husband)" (with accusative). The etymology of the noun is not certain. It has been compared to Latin "to wed", as derived from a word for "veil, cover", root cognate with Greek νέφος, Latin nubes ("cloud"), Greek νεφέλη, Latin nebula ("mist, vapor"), and Latin nimbus ("cloud cover"). This is not generally accepted. Beekes argues for a pre-Greek origin of the word. An alternative suggestion connects a word for "to bud, swell", from the root of German ) "bud". This is informed by a gloss of Hesychius which gives "rose-bud" as a meaning of . Ancient Greek mythology The Greek nymphs were spirits invariably bound to places, not unlike the Latin genius loci, and the difficulty of transferring their cult may be seen in the complicated myth that brought Arethusa to Sicily. In the works of the Greek-educated Latin poets, the nymphs gradually absorbed into their ranks the indigenous Italian divinities of springs and streams (Juturna, Egeria, Carmentis, Fontus), while the Lymphae (originally Lumpae), Italian water-goddesses, owing to the accidental similarity of their names, could be identified with the Greek Nymphae. The mythologies of classicizing Roman poets were unlikely to have affected the rites and cult of individual nymphs venerated by country people in the springs and clefts of Latium. Among the Roman literate class, their sphere of influence was restricted, and they appear almost exclusively as divinities of the watery element. Greek folk religion The ancient Greek belief in nymphs survived in many parts of the country into the early years of the twentieth century, when they were usually known as "nereids". At that time, John Cuthbert Lawson wrote: "...there is probably no nook or hamlet in all Greece where the womenfolk at least do not scrupulously take precautions against the thefts and malice of the nereids, while many a man may still be found to recount in all good faith stories of their beauty, passion and caprice. "Nor is it a matter of faith only; more than once I have been in villages where certain Nereids were known by sight to several persons (so at least they averred); and there was a wonderful agreement among the witnesses in the description of their appearance and dress." Nymphs tended to frequent areas distant from humans but could be encountered by lone travelers outside the village, where their music might be heard, and the traveler could spy on their dancing or bathing in a stream or pool, either during the noon heat or in the middle of the night. They might appear in a whirlwind. Such encounters could be dangerous, bringing dumbness, besotted infatuation, madness or stroke to the unfortunate human. When parents believed their child to be nereid-struck, they would pray to Saint Artemidos."heathen Artemis yielded her functions to her own genitive case transformed into Saint Artemidos", as Terrot Reaveley Glover phrased it in discussing the "practical polytheism in the worship of the saints", in Progress in Religion to the Christian Era 1922:107. Modern reception Sleeping nymph A motif that entered European art during the Renaissance was the idea of a statue of a nymph sleeping in a grotto or spring. This motif supposedly came from an Italian report of a Roman sculpture of a nymph at a fountain above the River Danube. The report, and an accompanying poem supposedly on the fountain describing the sleeping nymph, are now generally concluded to be a fifteenth-century forgery, but the motif proved influential among artists and landscape gardeners for several centuries after, with copies seen at neoclassical gardens such as the grotto at Stourhead. Sexual connotations Due to the depiction of the mythological nymphs as females who mate with men or women freely and without care, the term is often related to women who are perceived as behaving similarly. (For example, the title of the Perry Mason detective novel The Case of the Negligent Nymph (1956) by Erle Stanley Gardner is derived from this meaning of the word.) The term nymphomania was created by modern psychology as referring to a "desire to engage in human sexual behavior at a level high enough to be considered clinically significant", nymphomaniac being the person suffering from such a disorder. Due to widespread use of the term among lay persons (often shortened to nympho) and stereotypes attached, professionals nowadays prefer the term hypersexuality, which can refer to males and females alike. The word nymphet is used to identify a sexually precocious girl. The term was made famous in the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. The main character, Humbert Humbert, uses the term many times, usually in reference to the title character. List As H.J. Rose states, all the names for various classes of nymphs are plural feminine adjectives agreeing with the substantive nymphai, and there was no single classification that could be seen as canonical and exhaustive. Thus, the classes of nymphs tend to overlap, which complicates the task of precise classification. Rose mentions dryads and hamadryads as nymphs of trees generally, meliai as nymphs of ash trees, and naiads as nymphs of water, but no others specifically. The following is not the authentic Greek classification, but is intended simply as a guide: The following is a list of groups of nymphs associated with this or that particular location. Nymphs in such groupings could belong to any of the classes mentioned above (Naiades, Oreades, and so on). The following is a selection of names of the nymphs whose class was not specified in the source texts. For lists of Naiads, Oceanids, Dryades etc. see respective articles. In non-Greek tales influenced by Greek mythology *Sabrina (the river Severn) Gallery File:Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse.jpg|Echo, an Oread (mountain nymph) watches Narcissus in this 1903 painting of Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse. File:Hylas Saint-Romain-en Gal 07 2011.jpg|Hylas and nymphs from a mosaic in Roman Gaul (3rd century) File:Carracci Le Satyre et la Nymphe crop.jpg|Public sex between a nymph and Satyr. A sketch of Agostino Carracci. File:Nymphe et satyr - Nicolas Poussin - Musée Pouchkine Moscou.jpg|Nymphe et satyr - Nicolas Poussin - Musée Pouchkine Moscou File:Nymphe et Saty (Alexandre Cabanel) 1860.JPG|Nymphe et Saty (Alexandre Cabanel) 1860 File:Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, Die Seelen des Acheron.jpg|Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, The Souls of Acheron (1898). File:FantinLatour Naiade hermitage.jpg|''Naiad'' by Henri Fantin-Latour. File:Pleiades by Elihu Vedder.jpg|''The Pleiades'' (1885) by Elihu Vedder. File:Sir Edward John Poynter — Cave of the Storm Nymphs.jpg|''The Cave of the Storm Nymphs'' by Sir Edward John Poynter File:Gaston Bussière Nymphe.jpg|''Nymphe'' by Gaston Bussière File:Sátiro y ninfa..JPG|Fight between Nymph and Satyr, Naples National Archaeological Museum. File:Sleepingnymph.jpg|''A Sleeping Nymph Watched by a Shepherd by Angelica Kauffman, about 1780, (V&A Museum no. 23-1886)'' File:Sleeping Nymph, Stourhead.jpg|The statue of a sleeping nymph in a grotto at Stourhead, England. See also * Animism * Apsaras * Castalia * Fairy * Houri * Kami * Landvaettir * List of Greek mythological figures *List of tree deities * Melusine * Moura Encantada * Ondine (mythology) * Peri * Pitsa panels * Psychai * Rå * Sprite * Succubus * Vila * Yakshini References Sources * * * Lawson, John Cuthbert, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1910, p. 131 * Nereids * paleothea.com homepage * * External links * Theoi.com: Nymphs **Theoi Project – List of Nymphs Category:Greek legendary creatures Category:Nymphs Category:Classical elements Category:Greek Muses Category:Water spirits Category:Mythic humanoids Category:Supernatural legends Category:Mythical Creatures Category:Girls Category:Spirits Category:Women Category:Pretty Girls